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Chris Lee thinks for a moment and then says: 鈥淟ook at the weather apps. I had one the other day which said it was going to rain, but I looked at it and it said 鈥榮unny, sunny, sunny, one hour of rain, sunny, sunny, sunny, sunny鈥�. On the English app, that鈥檚 rain. Aussies have a slightly different attitude to life.鈥�

Born in Brisbane, the managing director of Populous鈥檚 Europe and Middle East (EMEA) business has been in the UK for most of this millennium. His wife is English, he lives in London, he supports Arsenal and even goes easy on Australia鈥檚 recent success in the Ashes.

But he misses the weather over there and finds the winters here 鈥� and their short, grey days 鈥� tough. 鈥淎ll my siblings are in Sydney and my parents still live in Brisbane, so I get back a lot which is nice.鈥�

He first arrived in the UK when he came to London to do his part I at Powell, Moya and Partners, an experience which was only supposed to last a year. 鈥淚 love London, fell in love with it as a 20-year-old. I eked it out for two years before my dad told me to get back home.鈥�

He wanted to get back to London as soon as he could but was persuaded to stay in Australia by Rod Sheard 鈥� who designed the then McAlpine stadium in Huddersfield, before, later on, the Millennium stadium in Cardiff and Wembley stadium 鈥� to work on the main stadium venue for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

It is no wonder, then, that Lee, now 51, who also sits on Populous鈥檚 global board, is in charge of a business that for many is the go-to architect for a slew of new stadia and entertainment venues that have and are springing up in the UK and beyond.

Lee says the firm has been flat out this year and, since January, his division has taken on 100 extra staff. That brings numbers up to around the 290 mark,  with the firm hoping to fill another 40 or 50 posts by the time 2023 is out. Most of its EMEA staff are based in the UK, with other offices including Paris and Milan.

Income from EMEA is expected to be around 拢40m 鈥� last year it was up 30% to nudge 拢30m 鈥� but Lee admits bringing in the right people has been a challenge for several years now.

鈥淚t鈥檚 harder to get staff not being part of Europe,鈥� he says. 鈥淏rexit has had a huge impact on lots of bits of our business, from having to set up separate companies to operate in various jurisdictions, where we previously didn鈥檛 have to, to access to staff.

鈥淏rexit has cost us money, without a doubt. It鈥檚 an identifiable figure. It has got better in the last 18 months but we don鈥檛 have access to quality Spanish, French, Greek staff. There are just not as many around, so recruitment is a big issue for us.鈥�

Lee says 80% of its global workload, which is around 拢100m, is in the sport and entertainment sectors. For example, the firm鈥檚 jobs in the UK include a new stand at Fulham鈥檚 Craven Cottage ground, the Co-op Live Arena in Manchester 鈥� a 23,500 capacity venue being built by Bam that is due to open next spring 鈥� and work to expand the home of the recent Champions League winners Manchester City.

Overseas, it is also designing a new stadium for AS Roma and is working on several convention centres in the US, including Boston and Los Angeles, as well as upgrading ageing stadia in the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, a country that has launched a raid on several household names in football for its fledgling Saudi Pro League.

The marquee signing has been Cristiano Ronaldo and Lee says: 鈥淭hey鈥檙e hellbent on making that the Premier League of the Middle East.鈥�

It was in the Premier League, though, that Lee cut his teeth and where Populous cemented its reputation and the key job was the Emirates stadium for Arsenal.

But before that there was the Millennium stadium in Cardiff, certainly for the construction industry one of its most notorious jobs given that losses on it helped send its builder, Laing Construction, into the arms of O鈥橰ourke for 拢1.

Lee has an interesting take on how things went so wrong and why it was a benchmark job for stadia of the future.

Completed in 1999, just in time for the start of that year鈥檚 rugby World Cup, he says: 鈥淚t marked the end of the point where people saw stadiums as civils projects.

鈥淭hey [Laing] rolled the team off the Severn bridge [the second crossing completed by Laing in 1996 ahead of work on the Millennium stadium starting the following year] and they had civils QSs on it who had no idea. They had the wrong team on it, they saw it as a civils project.鈥�

Lee loved his time on the Emirates. 鈥淭he client was just so nice, it was a great team on it. It was one of these teams that just gelled. Ken Friar [former managing director] and [the late Arsenal director] Danny Fiszman were such gentlemen, incredibly lovely men.鈥�

He says the team is still in touch with each other and singles out main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine鈥檚 construction director, Rolv Kristiansen, for special praise.

鈥漎ou鈥檝e got guys now who run construction sites and have never stepped foot on a site鈥�

鈥淗e was a giant of a man, he was brilliant 鈥� the last of the old proper construction directors. He used to walk the site twice a day 鈥� at 9 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon. He intuitively knew if there were enough blockies on site.

鈥淗e didn鈥檛 have a spreadsheet. You鈥檝e got guys now who run construction sites and have never stepped foot on a site.鈥�

The Emirates was completed in 2006 and Lee remembers: 鈥淲e had people saying at the time: 鈥樎�220m? You鈥檙e going to sink the club. Imagine spending a quarter of a billion on a stadium鈥�.鈥�

He left the UK to help set up Populous鈥檚 US office in New York before returning to work on the new stadium for Tottenham Hotspur.

That project, he says, has become a calling card for Populous. 鈥淚t has made some great openings, not just in the UK but globally. Someone told me recently that there have been some great stadium developments around the world, but Tottenham is the one that puts them together.鈥�

He puts much of this down to the club鈥檚 chairman, Daniel Levy. 鈥淒aniel is incredibly driven, I鈥檝e not met another person as driven. He wanted to create an amazing experience for fans.

鈥淔or so long, football fans have been treated as a captive audience and you are given a terrible experience. At Tottenham his thinking was that everyone should have an incredible experience. He was fixated on the American sporting experience.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e an impressive group, I must say 鈥� as an Arsenal fan,鈥� he winces. 鈥淚t was non-stop for a long time.鈥�

Lee still hears from Levy and says the club is continually improving its stadium,  which opened four years ago. It opened late and for a while it threatened to turn into a saga to rival that at Wembley a decade earlier.

It had an overall price tag of around 拢1bn, with construction costs swallowing up around 拢700m of that figure.

Mace built the scheme under a construction management deal and Lee says: 鈥淐M suited Daniel, he would have hated a fixed price design and build where he can鈥檛 change anything because all the way through, even now, he still wants to improve it.

鈥淧eople say there was a massive budget overspend. It was all planned, Daniel knew what he was doing, he knew exactly what he was spending. It wasn鈥檛 out of control.鈥�

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He says the Emirates has dated a bit. 鈥淲e could revisit it,鈥� he adds. 鈥淭he general admission is a bit tight. The turnstiles are old-school turnstiles. Some of the club levels have been changed, but very little in general admission.鈥�

The firm has just opened an office in Madrid and is looking at carrying out more work in Spain and Italy. Spain is eyeing a bid to host the football World Cup in 2030, after last hosting it in 1982.

Italy, too, is on its radar. There is the AS Roma job and it is working on a scheme to replace the San Siro in Milan. Local politics is holding that one up, Lee says diplomatically, but he adds: 鈥淚taly has fantastic clubs with huge fanbases, playing in infrastructure built for Italia 90 and which has not been touched since.鈥�

Given its reputation in sports and entertainment, does Populous not want to cash in and target other sectors? Not really, Lee bats back. 鈥淲e want to keep our spread relatively tight.鈥�

Where it has branched out is into aviation and transport and the firm is working on Kansai International Airport at Osaka in Japan. 鈥淟ots of clients have been really interested in the way we鈥檝e taken stadiums and reinvented them.

鈥淲ith aviation, it鈥檚 about process rather customer experience. Our view has been, 鈥榳hy can鈥檛 we think this in a different way?鈥�.鈥�

This year will be the firm鈥檚 busiest and Lee says it has not really felt the impact of inflation on the viability of its jobs. 鈥淭he biggest issue is those schemes in progress of design.

鈥淚f you started a scheme two years ago with a different figure, it鈥檚 either going back to value engineering, the client鈥檚 budget increases or work is phased.鈥�

Clients, he adds, have by and large been prepared to accept what is going on. 鈥淭hey understand. A lot of our clients are one-offs but they are sensible and well-advised.

鈥淣o one gets shocked. We didn鈥檛 have a job stopped during covid, which is incredible.鈥�

One final question: Which does he prefer, the Emirates or Tottenham鈥檚 stadium? He has a think for a bit.

鈥淚 think as a piece of architecture Tottenham is a great building.鈥� 1-0 to the Tottenham, then.